Spotlight on Concepcion and Getsemani Familia De Dios By Ludimir Nah
Concepcion is a small village located on the outskirts of the town of Corozal, in the northern part of Belize. The population is around 2,000, mostly of Mestizo or Mayan descent. (Mestizo is the mixture of Spanish and American Indian ancestry. The word mestizo comes from a Spanish word meaning “mixed.”)
Most of the young people from Concepcion work in clothing stores and food stands at a business hub on the Belize/Mexico border called “the commercial free zone.” There are about 300 stores in this commercial center, catering especially to the Mexican community. While most wives run the household, the men work in the sugarcane fields plowing the land, planting sugar stems, and growing and harvesting the fields with machetes. Harvesters in the sugarcane fields earn approximately $15.00 Belize (or $7.50 US) for every ton they harvest.
Concepcion is a very calm and relaxed village and, like many villages in Belize, it is surrounded by sugarcane fields. However, it is only 30 minutes away from the Corozal Bay, which is a part of the Caribbean Sea. You can often find families from Concepcion and neighboring villages on a warm weekend swimming and spending family time at the seaside.
Thirst Missions partners with a church in Concepcion called “Getsemani Familia De Dios,” which translates to “Gethsemane Family of God.” Pastor Eduardo has been leading this church for over 10 years along with his wife and nine kids.
This church has around 80 members including youth and adults. It is a typical size church in Belize and is made up of mostly women members. They worship on Sunday and Wednesday nights, with the highest attendance on Saturday night’s youth service. The youth leader is the pastor’s eldest son, Eduardo Jr.
Pastor Eduardo has been praying for church members to host a Wednesday service at their homes as a form of fellowship in 2016. It is the perfect opportunity to have non-Christian neighbors or family members listen to the gospel that week with hopes of getting them to come to church and become a believer.
Pastor Eduardo is also focusing on establishing mens night in 2016. He realizes the need for men to be followers of Christ. He is deep in prayer for God to soften the hearts of men in his village and for God to lead him as he continues to pastor Getsemani Familia De Dios.
Getsemani Familia de Dios has been encouraged and blessed by ongoing church partnerships from teams in the US. They have been able to support the needy in the community with food, worked on a family home for the pastor, built new benches for the church to fill with new members, and started working on building up business ideas that members of the village have. Most importantly, strong relationships and trust have been built with the people of Concepcion so that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be shared!
There are many other churches that we will highlight in future newsletters who do not yet have a church partner. It has been an honor to be able to partner Getsemani Familia de Dios with loving and faithful teams, and we pray that more partnerships like this one will continue to grow.
There are dozens more churches in Belize like Getsemani that are still hoping for church partners in 2016-we’d love to partner you with one! If you’d like more information on bringing a team down to bless a Belizean church, email us here and we’ll be in touch.
